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Bethel College to host ARISE for MLK, Jr. Day community event

September 11th, 2017

NORTH NEWTON, KAN. - The Wichita vocal group ARISE will perform at Bethel College for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day community celebration, set for 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 19. Planned by Bethel's Minority Life department, the one-hour program will be held in Krehbiel Auditorium, Fine Arts Center on the North Newton campus.
The day honors civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. who was born Jan. 15, 1929, and died April 4, 1968. The holiday was first celebrated in 1986.

ARISE (African Americans Renewing Interest in Spirituals Ensemble) was founded in 1989 by Josephine "Jo" Brown, a church musician, who was saddened to see a decline in the singing of spirituals. She gathered together a group of community singers from various churches and, with the help of a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council, ARISE was born.

The Bethel program will be a mini-concert of old and new spirituals. In addition, Shae'la Sterling, a Chisholm Middle School seventh grader, will recite Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream."

Admission is free and open to the public.

About Bethel

As the first Mennonite college founded in North America, Bethel College celebrates a tradition of progressive Christian liberal arts education, diversity within community, and lifelong learning.